Source: Auckland Council
Auckland Council has gone live with two exciting initiatives this week in line with our commitment to tupu (grow) the presence of te reo Māori on the Auckland Council website.
From Monday 14 September, visitors to the council website home page will be able to toggle the language for that page between English and te reo Māori.
Use the slider below to see the two versions:
People and Performance Māori Outcomes Lead Jane Badger says, “The website is such an important platform to ensure te reo Māori is seen, heard, spoken and learned throughout Tāmaki Makaurau.”
The change may look simple, but adding the option to switch languages presented some technical challenges for the team, such as making sure that screen reader software (used by people with low or no vision) can recognise the page as te reo and pronounce the language correctly.
Another change will see the te reo headings that appear on each page located above the English headings, not below. This is a style that has been used on other sites since the main website went live, for example Tiaki Tāmaki Makaurau and the City Centre Masterplan site, and is now being applied to other council websites.
Auckland Council Head of Digital Wendy Beban says the te reo headings were first introduced when we went live with our new website in 2017.
“When we were planning how to recognize te wiki o te reo Māori this year, it just made sense to highlight those by moving them above the English headings, and pulling them through to the home page.”
The changes have been made to the website in time for te wiki o te reo Māori (Māori Language Week), which runs from 14 to 20 September.
